


Handfast

by osprey_archer



Series: Soulbond [2]
Category: Frontier Wolf - Rosemary Sutcliff
Genre: F/M, M/M, Soul Bond
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-23
Updated: 2013-02-23
Packaged: 2017-12-03 07:47:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 772
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/695925
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/osprey_archer/pseuds/osprey_archer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>“If your soulmate, if this – ” Shula’s voice hitched. She swallowed, and went on. “If Alexios comes to live with us, and be your shieldbrother; I will not mind.”</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Handfast

“I do not mind,” said Shula, head bowed over her stitchery; and Cunorix, who had been staring brooding into the fire looked up at her with a start. She stitched on, eyelashes casting shadows on her cheeks in the firelight. “It is a great honor for you to have a soulmate: and a great good omen for all of us, perhaps, as well.” 

She did not look up from the cloak she was mending. Of course she would mind: but what else was she to say? The gods ordained a soulbond. Cunorix had not chosen, would never have chosen to betray her. 

It chafed at him, this bond he had not chosen. 

But even so, the memory of the Frontier Wolves’ new commander warmed him. The man’s image seemed to hang before him, flickering in the flames: a slight dark man with sharp dark brows. That name, odd even among the Roman kind. Alexios. 

“If your soulmate, if this – ” Shula’s voice hitched. She swallowed, and went on. “If Alexios comes to live with us, and be your shieldbrother; I will not mind.” 

_Alexios_. Even the name was sweet in Cunorix’s ear: he smiled when she said it, and hated himself, because he could see that saying it gave her pain. 

“That will not happen,” Cunorix assured her. “He thinks it is I who ought to go to him.” 

Alexios had half expected Cunorix to gather up his spears and go back with him to Castellum that afternoon. Cunorix remembered the pain that twisted Alexios’s mouth when Alexios realized he would not; he felt still the answering lance of pain in his own chest. It tugged him, like a hook in a fish’s mouth, as if the desires of Alexios ought to weigh more with him than his love and obligation for his wife and his father and the Six Hundred Spears who would soon be his to rule. 

In a part of him, Alexios did. A part of him would have followed Alexios like a dog: and another part hated that unless Alexios died he would not be his own man again. 

Unless Alexios died. The thought of Alexios’a death was almost beyond bearing. 

“It will never occur to him to leave his legion, and come to live among the tribes,” Cunorix said. More bitterness seeped out in his voice than he meant. 

Shula took both his big hands in her hands, slim and callused with much spinning. “He is bound,” she pointed out. “He is married to the army: that is the Roman way.”

“But so am I bound,” Cunorix said. “And my bonds are stronger than his. For he is only just arrived here, and knows no one, whereas I will be the next Lord of Six Hundred Spears – and I am married to you – ”

Shula looked down at their clasped hands. “Roman men leave their wives for their soulbonds,” she said. “That is also – also the Roman way.” 

He saw, then, what worried her. His heart ached: and he savored that pain, because it was all his own. “Shula, love,” he said, and squeezed her hands. She looked up at him, grave, but a smile starting at the corners of her mouth. “I will never leave you. If Alexios wants us to be always together, then it is for him to come to me. He must know that a soulbond – that next to a love you have chosen, a soulbond is a lesser thing.”

It was not quite true, and some graveness remained in Shula’s face, that said she knew Cunorix half-lied. But she smiled, too, looking into his eyes: and the warmth of her face warmed Cunorix till he could barely feel the sting of Alexios’s disappointment. 

“Perhaps it is a sign,” said Shula. “This soulbond: perhaps it is a message from the gods. The son of Ferradach Dhu is soulbound to the commander of the Frontier Wolves: perhaps there will be a strong peace between our peoples now.” 

Cunorix had not even thought what this soulbond might mean for his people: had only worried what it meant for himself, and Alexios, and Shula. But of course she saw farther than he did. It was for that, as for her gentleness and clever stitchery and lovely face, that he loved her. 

And he had not chosen to love her, he realized, any more than he had chosen to be soulbound to Alexios. Perhaps love, like soulbonds, was also ordained by the gods. Alexios was his soulmate: but Shula remained Cunorix's northern star. 

“Let us hope so,” Cunorix said, and kissed his wife’s mouth. “Let us believe so, Shula.”


End file.
